Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman speaks at a news conference at the California Republican Convention in Indian Wells, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009. Whitman is seeking the Republican nomination for Governor of California.(AP Photo/Francis Specker) less

Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman speaks at a news conference at the California Republican Convention in Indian Wells, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009. Whitman is seeking the Republican nomination ... more

Photo: Francis Specker, AP

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California Attorney General Jerry Brown after filing his papers at Alameda County Registrars office, making official his run for Governor of the State of California on Friday Mar. 5, 2010.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown after filing his papers at Alameda County Registrars office, making official his run for Governor of the State of California on Friday Mar. 5, 2010.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor, discusses his campaign during an interview with the Associated Press in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010. Poizner is running against former eBay CEOMeg Whitman for the nomination. less

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor, discusses his campaign during an interview with the Associated Press in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010. ... more

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP

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California Attorney General Jerry Brown files his papers at Alameda County Registrars office to make official his run for Governor of the State of California on Friday Mar. 5, 2010.California Attorney General Jerry Brown files his papers at Alameda County Registrars office to make official his run for Governor of the State of California on Friday Mar. 5, 2010. less

California Attorney General Jerry Brown files his papers at Alameda County Registrars office to make official his run for Governor of the State of California on Friday Mar. 5, 2010.California Attorney General ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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California Attorney General Jerry Brown departs the County Administration Building in Oakland, Calif. after filing his papers at Registrars office to make official his run for Governor of the State of California on Friday Mar. 5, 2010. less

California Attorney General Jerry Brown departs the County Administration Building in Oakland, Calif. after filing his papers at Registrars office to make official his run for Governor of the State of ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Brown heads for middle as GOP rivals go right

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Jerry Brown has said that staying afloat in the roiling whitewater of California politics, as he has for four decades, requires deftness: "You paddle a little bit on the left, then you paddle a little bit on the right side, and you keep going straight down the middle."

But as he launched his third run for California governor last week, the Democratic state attorney general - a master of the political oars - tacked right toward two wealthy GOP opponents, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who are battling furiously for their party's gubernatorial nomination.

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His actions showed that while Brown lacks the well-funded bank accounts of his GOP challengers, he has a luxury they don't have: an unopposed race in the June primary. That means Brown, whom the GOP has painted as a '70s-style, tax-and-spend liberal, is freer to take positions that put him squarely in the middle of the political spectrum.

Brown said in an interview with The Chronicle that he is against the legalization of marijuana, and opposed to "sanctuary cities" and driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants as undermining U.S. borders. He backed the study of a simplified state tax system and warned labor unions they would take their share of budget pain.

And he was very firm about not toying with Proposition 13, the landmark tax reform law approved by voters in 1978, saying, "I'm not going to jump into that mosh pit."

Political challenge

With eight months until the November general election, Brown's centrist profile sets up a political challenge to Poizner and Whitman - two moderates who have avoided the dreaded "M" word as they aim to seize the mantle of "true conservative" in the Republican primary race.

Whitman has been forced to defend how in 2003 she endorsed Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer as a "dynamic" leader, donated $4,000 to Boxer's campaign and was on Boxer's "technology leader" support committee.

At the same time, Poizner has been the subject of Whitman attack ads accusing him of making a $1,000 donation to Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign and a $10,000 donation to the Gore recount committee. He said the donations were from his wife.

Seeking endorsements

Poizner and Whitman have wrestled for star conservative endorsements. On Friday, Poizner touted his backing from conservative California Rep. Tom McClintock, who called Poizner "the only conservative candidate" in the race. That countered Whitman's boost from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association's highly respected leader, Jon Coupal.

Both candidates have taken heat on the incendiary issue of abortion. Poizner had to explain why, after arguing that he has been more conservative than Whitman on the issue, he told a GOP pro-choice women's group in 2004 that he supported abortion rights - including public funding of abortions.

Poizner said Friday he no longer favors such funding. Whitman, who is pro-choice and told The Chronicle more than a year ago that she supported state funding of abortions, on Friday countered with an advertisement that skewered Poizner for that position.

"I don't think any of them are strictly ideological," Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin said. "But this is a huge advantage that Jerry clearly has. He cleared the Democratic field, so he can define the race on his terms, and he's going straight to the middle, which is smart.

"Whitman and Poizner have to go right," Tulchin added, "and that electorate is way out of step with the rest of California."

No free pass

But Whitman's chief political strategist, Mike Murphy, said Brown will get no free pass - and voters will learn his two terms as governor were defined by "support for taxes, spending, gimmicks and spin, and very little in the way of positive results."

Murphy said Californians will see "an unrelenting pattern of cynicism. Brown constantly reinvents himself to fit the public mood. There is a troubling absence of leadership. And in a crisis, who really wants a political opportunist in the governor's mansion?"

Still, a poll in January by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan research group, showed that California's moderate voters overwhelmingly lean toward Brown. The poll showed the attorney general held a 14-point lead over Whitman and a 28-point lead over Poizner among voters who described themselves as moderate.

Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of the group, said Brown's move to the center "makes perfect political sense" in a state where Democrats have a 13-point registration advantage over Republicans - 44-31 percent - with 20 percent of other voters independents who decline to state a party affiliation.

"If you look at the gubernatorial choices of the past 20 years - Pete Wilson, Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger - whether Republican or Democrat, they have one thing in common," he said. "It's an effort to be moderate - politically liberal on social issues and conservative on fiscal issues."

The key to winning the race in November will be "appealing to the growing numbers of independents that now number over 3 million," he said.

Billionaire Whitman's decision to put $39 million of her own money into the race makes her campaign "an economic stimulus package that's throwing money all over the state," he added.

Brown's and Whitman's campaigns "are a manifestation of their ability to govern," Peskin said. "One is spending money like a drunken sailor and the other, Brown, isn't. Maybe that's a sign to voters of who can solve this budget crisis."